The year 2008 was an impressive year in terms of smart digital strategy on the Democratic side, where “change” went viral and then inevitably downhill. In 2012, all Republican Presidential hopefuls are gearing up for a digital face-off and putting teams behind their digital strategies. It’s certainly clear to me the internet has become a major player in political campaigns. In fact, according to a recent study done by Strata, online campaign spending has doubled since 2010. Campaigns small and large can learn something by observing how the larger political campaigns incorporate digital media into their overall strategies.  

This is a big year on a local, state and national level and those who don’t get on board with digital this year will miss out on valuable, targeted opportunities to connect with voters.  Here is a quick check-list to help start to shape your digital strategy in 2012:

1-      BE proactive.  Thinking ahead is the most important thing you can do when it comes to planning your digital strategy. Knowing what you want to accomplish a few months down the road should help define your current strategy. Take Romney for example, who was one of only two candidates to qualify for the Virginia Primary.  Zac Moffat, Digital Director on the Romney campaign was quoted saying “the political team knew two months in advance what we wanted to do.” Team Romney utilized segmented emails to engage Virginians in the now, tracked them through their social media accounts, and followed up with phone calls to secure signatures. Thus, getting them to the future and ultimately on the Virginia ballot.

2-      BE consistent: Keep your message consistent across all channels, on and offline. The benefit to advertising through multiple channels is it allows you to extend reach, and increase frequency, but be careful not to confuse your audience with varying messages.

3-      BE relevant. Ensure all websites and landing pages are consistent with advertising messages. Don’t send someone to your website donations page from a banner ad or video if your message is about your voting record.

4-      BE a part of the conversation. Keep the conversation alive and engage with your supporters and non-supporters through social channels (Facebook, Twitter etc.). People like to listen and be heard when they are interacting in the social space. Post things daily, whether it’s a link, a quote, a video, and allow your followers to interact with it. What you will likely see is people commenting, people liking and people sharing. This is the digital way to Word Of Mouth. Check out Mitt Romney’s or Obama’s Facebook page and get an idea of what is engaging their followers.

5-      BE a risk taker. Don’t be afraid to try something new. The best thing about digital media is you can quickly gauge response, measure success, and switch out creative. If you have a great idea, try it, watch it, and if it’s not working try something new! The point being, do not be afraid to be creative in the digital space. There is no roadmap to success when it comes to digital media. As this landscape evolves, evolve with it.

6-      BE an observer. Learn from the winning moves and losing moves that Romney, Santorum, Paul and Obama are making. Keep up-to-date with news about their online campaign spending, visit their websites often, sign up for their email updates, and follow them on Facebook and Twitter. What you can learn through observation might surprise you.

 As you begin to play in the digital space you will start to see how each element of your overall campaign strategy can be influenced but what you do online. Don’t let that scare you because if you don’t jump on board now you will certainly get left behind.

Republicans like Dark Horse presidential candidates, especially ones championing a cultural populist approach. In 2008, Mike Huckabee, then a little-known Arkansas governor, beat out better-funded, more prominent rivals to finish as the runner up for the nomination. In 2012, former Sen. Rick Santorum, out of public office for five years, came back from the political dead to be Mitt Romney’s main rival for the GOP nod.

Their success has many parallels and could serve as a model for future candidates.

Huckabee and Santorum were the most outspoken social conservatives in their contests. Both appealed to blue-collar workers who are not natural Republican primary voters. Santorum has been able to capture the support of Huckabee’s Southern Evangelical base—a feat for an Italian Catholic from suburban Pittsburgh. In Southern contests, Santorum was able to run just as strong in the Jacksonian uplands of Alabama and Tennessee, and he did better in the coastal and urban areas like Birmingham, Nashville and Mobile.

Santorum has been able to outperform Huckabee in some areas, including Northern rural counties. This was most apparent in Michigan. Huckabee got nowhere in Michigan in 2008. He got sixteen percent and did not win a single county. Even heavily evangelical Ottawa County only gave him 23 percent. Santorum had much broader appeal. He earned 38 percent in Michigan, won most of the rural counties, and got 49 percent in Ottawa County. Santorum has done better across the board in the North, even with evangelicals.

Huckabee demonstrated little appeal to Catholic voters. He won just nine percent of Catholics in Michigan. In Louisiana, the governor took just 29 percent compared to Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) 55 percent. By comparison, Santorum got 37 percent of Catholic votes in Michigan and 46 percent in Louisiana.

Still, the most prominent Catholic GOP politician of his generation is losing his coreligionists to Romney. In Michigan, Romney received 44 percent of the Catholic vote, seven points ahead of Santorum. In Ohio, where Santorum lost by one point, Romney won Catholics 44 to 31 percent. Santorum was able to break free of Huckabee’s evangelical-only appeal, but wasn’t able to score even ties with Romney among Catholics, which would have been enough to upend the nomination race.

Santorum’s strategy also failed because he didn’t make enough inroads with blue-collar workers. In industrial counties such as Scott (Davenport) and Dubuque counties in Iowa, Saginaw and Bay counties in Michigan, and Mahoning (Youngstown) and Trumbull counties in Ohio, the Massachusetts millionaire beat the grandson of a coal miner. It may be the case that this approach is better suited to winning over independents than Republican primary voters.

What we have seen in the past two Republican presidential primary contests is that positioning yourself as the cultural populist outsider has become the most effective way to rival the best-known, best-funded candidates. The approach does have its flaws, though. Huckabee was never able to appeal beyond his Southern evangelical base. Santorum was able to run strong among Northern rural voters but still came up short in big contests. In spite of their failures, the Huckabee and Santorum experiences suggest that a better caliber cultural populist with broader appeal could be a leading contender for the Republican nomination in the future.

Chris Palko works as an assistant media analyst at Smart Media Group, a Republican political media buying agency in Alexandria, Va. He is a graduate of American University and George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management.

A version of this post was also published on Campaign and Election’s blog, Campaign Insider.

Strong performances in urban areas are helping Romney to the nomination.

For all the scrutiny of Mitt Romney’s support among conservative primary voters, there’s a bright spot in his recent performances. Romney’s winning the most populated counties, almost without fail.

In fact, his performance by county closely resembles a map measuring population density. While he’s losing rural counties, Romney’s support is strong in the types of counties that helped President George W. Bush win two terms.

Take the results from Tuesday’s southern primaries. In Alabama, Romney won four counties: Jefferson (Birmingham), Montgomery (Montgomery), Mobile and Baldwin (metro Mobile). In Mississippi, he performed well in the Jackson metro area (Hinds, Rankin, and Madison counties) and the Gulf Coast cities of Biloxi (Harrison County) and Gulfport (Jackson County).

Ultimately, though, Romney lost both southern primaries to Rick Santorum who performed better in the rural counties that make up the core of the GOP electorate in the South.

Still, Romney’s wins in densely populated industrial counties have undermined the coherence of Santorum’s campaign strategy. The former senator sought to expand upon Mike Huckabee’s cultural-populist coalition by bringing in northern, blue-collar workers. Santorum is not regionally limited like Huckabee, but he’s failed to win over the Reagan-Democrat contingent. The counties with medium-sized industrial cities such as Davenport and Dubuque in Iowa, Flint and Saginaw in Michigan and Youngstown and Dayton in Ohio, have gone for Romney. If Santorum won the industrial areas he appeals so frequently to, there would likely be a different frontrunner right now.

Romney is doing well in the suburban and exurban counties that gave Bush the margins to win in 2004. Essential to the last victorious Republican presidential campaign was performing well in exurban counties like Warren, Clermont, and Delaware in Ohio; Dallas in Iowa; Pasco, Sarasota and St. Johns in Florida. Romney has won all of these counties, often strongly. He’s also winning more established suburban counties like Oakland in Michigan; Rockingham and Hillsborough in New Hampshire; Seminole and Volusia in Florida, which have been difficult for Republicans to win in recent years.

There are two spins on Romney’s metropolitan/rural disparity. Democrats and supporters of non-Romney candidates can interpret his performance as a sign of rural weakness. They can point to all of his fundraising advantages, all of his endorsements, all of his so-called inevitability and note that he’s not connecting with large parts of the Republican electorate. In this view, less than whole-hearted enthusiasm among the conservative base could doom him in the fall.

But Romney and his supporters can make the case that he’s doing best in areas where Republicans need the most help. He can argue that rural voters who didn’t vote for him in the primaries will be there for any Republican candidate in the general. Meanwhile, Romney also can do well in urban and suburban counties.

In this view, it’s more important for the Republican nominee to run strong in the northern neighborhoods of Columbus, Ohio or Manchester, New Hampshire than it is to make marginal gains in rural Western Ohio or Northern Florida. Also, holding down President Obama’s margins in Democratic base counties such as, say, Cuyahoga in Ohio and Broward in Florida is as much a part of a successful Republican strategy as strong turnout in Republican areas. Romney can make a case that he alone would be successful in doing so.

Chris Palko works as an assistant media analyst at Smart Media Group, a Republican political media buying agency in Alexandria, Va. He is a graduate of American University and George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management.

A version of this post was also published on Campaign and Election’s blog, Campaign Insider.